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This is the first Giant Rat design I did for the Production of the 1998 Animated Godzilla TV show, there were 3 in all. Typically, the writers quickly ran out of ideas and started going down the list of vermin to enlarge to face off against Godzilla and the team. So I did my best to make the rats progressively more interesting, starting with regular rats as my reference for this first stage, I set about making them huge and grotesque.

Helen Maier helped me ink this design back in 1998, she wrote notes in the bottom right for the departments that were next in line, like the Colorists, Timers, and Translators to make sure that this model was used in the correct scenes based off the storyboards. Sometimes the storyboards were drawn by so many different artists that the creature designs would appear different from scene to scene, we had to make sure that there would be no confusion further down the line as to which rat model would be used in which scene. Traditionally it should have been a job for the Directors, but well..

Also because we were still in secrecy mode the show was called "Heat Seekers" not "Godzilla" that is why you see "HS" before the episode number "#106", shows always began at 100, just in case earlier shows were called for. They never were.

I can sculpt as well as I draw, since I've always done both since I was a kid. I see my drawings as sculptures, like I'm forming something out of the paper. I can "feel" the shapes that I draw.

Also I could draw "photo realistically" at the age of 15, copying off photos was no challenge to me, so I focused on cartoony styles, and anything that didn't exist. I have no interest in representing something that already exists.

Awesome! This is the stuff I love to see! Its really cool to see these pieces of the show. You certainly succeeded on making them large and grotesque lol. We should be thank these do not exist lol. Really awesome job Fil!

Lol yeah, I wouldn't want those things running around. I love how these pieces bring back so much nostalgia. GTS was such a great series. Speaking of which, what was your favorite cartoon that you worked on? Starship Troopers?

Most of the shows were tough to get through, and to be honest, I rarely saw many of the animations on air. Starship Troopers was the best end result, because it was CG and the models stayed the same, but again I only saw a few episodes on TV. The first season of ALF was the most fun to work on, and watching it after PeeWee's Playhouse was a thrill because it was my first animation experience. I'm never very good at picking favorites because each had their merits. I'm just proud of my art and was always disappointed when I saw how off model the animations would come back, which is why I rarely watched the shows. As I often said during production, my model sheets are the last time that the characters/creatures will look this good. So I'm glad that DA is giving the chance to show people my designs at their best.

I liked the variety of designs for the rats in that episode. These ones are clearly based on regular city rats, but the others - perhaps more severely mutated - remind me of naked mole rats. They even act like them, catching food to feed a huge queen (which the "Huge Rat" that later appears in "Monster Wars" might have been). Was that on your mind when you designed them?

I'll reveal the references as I post the next ones, but you are correct, naked mole rats were my starting point for the next mutation. Now a queen rat would have been more imaginative, bah animation writers :/